A businesswoman hoping to open a new multi-million-pound restaurant, beauty salon and mini spa has said she is “over the moon” that plans for a nearby bus gate scheme have been paused.
Debbie Tams told Daily Focus last year that the proposed scheme on Etruria Road, in Basford, could be the “nail in the coffin” for her business venture, which she had invested £2.2 million into at that point.
Work on the scheme has been paused while councils develop an alternative proposal which is believed to involve purchasing properties along the part of Basford Bank where the pollution is at its worst.
Beauty and the Bistro, which has been in the pipeline for a number of years, was due to open on the same road as the bus gate at the end of last year, creating around 50 jobs and Debbie was concerned that the bus gate would put people off visiting.
She claims the plans are partly to blame for recently losing a funder and delaying work on her business.
But with another funder almost now in place, she would like the plans scrapped altogether.
Debbie said: “I am absolutely over the moon and delighted that things have been paused, but I would like confirmation that it is going to be scrapped altogether.
“A bus gate would bring chaos and disruption to so many businesses and lives in the city to bring down pollution levels which I don’t believe were as bad as made out in the first place.
“It would destroy my business after all the hard work and battling I have done for it.”
The Government said the proposed bus gate on Basford Bank, at the bottom of the A53 Etruria Road, was needed because levels of nitrogen oxide (NO2) detected in the air in the vicinity exceed statutory limits.
Under the plans, traffic would have been stopped from travelling up the bank towards Newcastle-under-Lyme between 7am and 10am and 4pm until 7pm Monday to Friday, with exemptions for all buses and coaches, pedal cycles, taxis, ultra-low/zero emissions vehicles and emergency service vehicles operating under blue light.
Debbie added: “I am so happy they have seen sense.
“I lost a funder and thousands of pounds because they heard about the bus gate and decided my business was too risky.
“I have another one now and we are currently waiting on searches, but I need that funding to help to do the kitchen.
“Otherwise, we are 95 per cent there with regards to the fit out and I hope to be able to open in September or October.
“We’re so close to opening now. I feel like I have swum through a river full of crocodiles and am nearly at the other side. I just don’t want the last one to get me.”
- Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce has also welcomed the scheme being paused. Click here to read that story.
